I am a new Linux and Unix system user. How do I list the groups a user named foo belongs to? How can I display display the groups a user is in on Linux or Unix-like systems?
You need to use the groups command to show the groups a user belongs to on Linux or Unix shell prompt.[donotprint]
groups command details | |
---|---|
Description | Find user's group memberships |
Category | N/A |
Difficulty | Easy |
Root privileges | No |
Estimated completion time | 1m |
Purpose
List a user’s group memberships.
Syntax
The basic syntax is as follows:
groups
groups [UserNameHere]
groups --help
groups --version
groups command examples
To simply show a user’s group memberships for the current user, type:
$ groups
Sample outputs:
In this example, twelev groups are output: staff, everyone, localaccounts, _appserverusr, admin, _appserveradm, _lpadmin, _appstore, _lpoperator, _developer, com.apple.access_screensharing, and com.apple.access_ssh. You can easily count total group with the following wc command:
$ groups | wc -w
Sample outputs:
12
Recommend alternative to groups command
The groups command has been obsoleted by the id command. You need to use the following command which is equivalent to id -Gn:
$ id -Gn
$ id -Gn root
Sample outputs:
wheel daemon kmem sys tty operator procview procmod everyone staff certusers localaccounts admin _appstore _lpadmin _lpoperator _developer com.apple.access_screensharing com.apple.access_ssh
See also
- /etc/group file.
- groups(1) Linux/Unix command man page
- Man pages – group(5)
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Category | List of Unix and Linux commands |
---|---|
File Management | cat |
Firewall | Alpine Awall • CentOS 8 • OpenSUSE • RHEL 8 • Ubuntu 16.04 • Ubuntu 18.04 • Ubuntu 20.04 |
Network Utilities | dig • host • ip • nmap |
OpenVPN | CentOS 7 • CentOS 8 • Debian 10 • Debian 8/9 • Ubuntu 18.04 • Ubuntu 20.04 |
Package Manager | apk • apt |
Processes Management | bg • chroot • cron • disown • fg • jobs • killall • kill • pidof • pstree • pwdx • time |
Searching | grep • whereis • which |
User Information | groups • id • lastcomm • last • lid/libuser-lid • logname • members • users • whoami • who • w |
WireGuard VPN | Alpine • CentOS 8 • Debian 10 • Firewall • Ubuntu 20.04 |
groups works fine as well